Enriching The Unreached: Ijesha Muslim High School Ilesa, Osun State

If every school in Osun State is blessed with a Principal like Mr. Olowookere, the Principal of Ijesha Muslim High School Ilesa, the Students and Parents would never feel the evil of government policies on the Academic Performance of their Students. Despite NLC Strike and circular sent to the school to close down, the Principal made sure the Students never went home until their lives and mentality have been changed for better through the #enrichingtheunreached Project. While NLC keeps agitating for the present, he agitates for future.

Wednesday 18th of May, 2016 was the day fixed for us by the School’s Management to come and speak to their students on our project ‘Enriching the Unreached’. The news of the NLC strike set us back until we started receiving calls from the School Principal on their willingness and readiness to host us. Despite the fact that the program was meant to commence by 10:00am, the Students, Teachers and Principal had been calmly settled in the School’s Hall awaiting our presence right from around 9:30am.

‘Enriching the Unreached’ Team started presentation around 10:05am with the Founder/Executive Director of Initiative for Sound Education Relationship & Health (ISERH) who doubles as the Team Leader opening the floor after the Principal’s address and introduction of the Team. Little did Mr. Abdulraheem know that the Principal had acquainted the students with his profile during the waiting period to welcome them.

ABC Scholar Nafisat Abdulwahab (17) was the first to share her story with the students. Her story got the students very sober and reflective. She narrated how financially challenged her family is. How she adopted food ratio 0:0:1 and 1:0:1 (that is, no food in the morning and afternoon but in the night, and food in the morning and night but none in the afternoon). She explained how she used to save every money gift giving to her by family friends to offset her Coaching fee. She told them how she recently (last month) paid the lesson fee she owed the Coaching Center since last year, through the money she made from the menial job she does.

They were amazed to know her age (17) and to know that she completed her secondary education last year (2015) at Methodist High School, Ilesa at the age of 16, and passed her WAEC in flying colours. She explained how she was the last person to obtain the Aspiring the Best Competition (ABC) last year (2015) consequent to financial constraint, at the verge of closing hours. She emerged the competition’s winner, emerged as the 2nd Overall Highest Scorer in the competition, and thereby won the sponsorship of her SSCE/UTME by the organization (ISERH). She explained to them that she is awaiting the Post UTME of University of Ilorin to read her dream course Mass Communication as she scored 254 Marks in her UTME. She afterwards taught them a poem:

‘I have a brain
You have a brain
Everybody has a brain
But you have to put it to work
So that you can be celebrated’'

It was the turn of ABC Scholar Oluwaleke Fakorede (16) to relate his story. Leke informed them that he is the first of three children of his parents which vests some responsibilities and house chores on him. He explained how difficult it is to combine both academic and these responsibilities. He informed them about how he used to fail Economics while in secondary school ‘Bibo Oluwa Academy’ consequent to his hatred for the teacher that taught them the subject. He narrated how he used to jump off the classroom windows whenever the subjects he hated were to be taught. Leke explained how he used to be the Lowest Scorer in Mathematics out of about 70+ Students in his Level in his school.

Leke finished his secondary education last year (2015) but wrote Aspiring the Best Competition (ABC) while in SS2 to challenge his brain, but amazingly ended up being the 2nd Overall Highest Scorer of the competition which earned him the title: ABC Scholar. He represented his school in several competitions and he occupied the 2nd Position in Cowbell Mathematics Competition Osun State.  He made his SSCE Results and has been offered admission into Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife to read Computer Science. He is one of the proponents of this initiative ‘Enriching the Unreached’ and even, the one that proposed the name.

With us at the program were ABC Scholar Samuel Oluwafemi (20) who has also been offered admission into Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife to study Accounting, and ABC Scholar Cornelius Emmanuel (16) who served as our photographer and who is awaiting the Post UTME of University of Ilorin to read Medicine.

In conclusion, our counting continues but we are happy to reach 122 Students at the Ijesha Muslim High School, Ilesa, making the total number of students reached so far stands at 481 and leaving us with the deficit of 9,519 Students to reach across the State. As a reminder, Enriching the Unreached is designed to reach out to 10,000 Students across High Schools in Osun State, with the objective of enhancing their moral and academic performance through listening to the stories of ABC Scholars and other Young Achievers.

The Program continues with other Schools within the State.